This invention relates to a honey product fortified by the addition of pollen and to a process for making the honey product.
For as long as man has maintained records of human activity and events, the food substance honey has received attention as a nutritious material well-suited for human consumption. In fact, biblical references to the beneficial results occurring from the consumption of natural honey are made. The substance honey is a product of the activity of honeybees and initially it was obtained by gathering from the wild swarms of honeybees which built their honeycombs in a multitude of different places. Over the years, honey became recognized as a natural foodstuff with nutritionally beneficial results to the consumer.
As society progressed, the nutritional and sweetener values of honey became more well-known and the beekeeper assembled swarms in a controlled environment so that he would not have to travel in search of honey accumulations. The science of beekeeping then developed and the domestication of the colonies of honeybees took place. Thus, the product was made available to increasing numbers of people throughout the world. These new consumers of honey valued honey primarily as a sweetening agent.
The product honey began to be increasingly incorporated in prepared foods, notably baked foodstuffs, as well as enjoying increasing usage as an individual sweetener. The beekeeping industry expanded and mechanical innovations were introduced in aid of the beekeeper. Over one hundred years ago, the removable frame for supporting the comb structure in which the honeybees deposit the honey found widespread acceptance in the industry.
Additional innovation took place with the aim of automating the beekeeping and honey gathering operations as much as practical. These innovations include the use of artificial comb-like structures for incorporation in the removable frame along with automatic "uncapping" machines which carve away the outer layers of honey deposited by the bees to cap the individual cells in the combs. Now, the removable frame and comb structures therein are typically placed in the upper portion of the manufactured beehive structure and the queen bee is denied access to the region wherein honey is deposited. The feeding of the bees including the queen, takes place in the underlying chamber wherein the pollen gatherers return with their food supplies.
While all bees come into contact with and ingest pollens in their travels, the gathering of pollen and placement thereof as pellets in pouches in the legs of the female worker bees is the food source for the colony. The nutritional value of pollen has gained increasing attention over the years and it is widely recognized and consumed as a dietary supplement. A variety of innovations have been made in the hive structure to trap pollen from the gatherers as they return to the colony. Today, pollen is an important nutritional product consumed throughout the world because of its nutritional qualities, notably the high amino acid content of pollen.
The emphasis in the beekeeping industry has come to providing a host of hive products for consumers. The two primary products are honey processed for use as a sweetening agent or additive and a number of nutritional products, typically pollen, which are consumed for the different health benefits ascribed thereto.
Today, the processing of honey is directed to the provision of a translucent, clear liquid sweetener and the consumer has come to regard the thin golden liquid, processed honey, as a premium product. To reach the goal of a clear liquid, the beekeeper has removed the viscous honey endcapping of the cell and provided the processor with the more fluid or less viscous central section of the honey in the cell. The processor in turn takes this portion of the bees honey and subjects it to an elevated temperature, often as high as 200.degree. F. to clarify and purify.
Further clarification is achieved by adding diatomaceous earth to the honey and then subjecting it under pressure to a multiplicity of filters. The diatomaceous earth forms an agglomerate with any residual pollen in the honey to thereby assist the filters in removing all components from the liquid except the honey. The result found in the marketplace is a clear liquid which is a premium sweetening agent. The processing steps to achieve a clear uniform liquid has destroyed or removed many of the nutrients that created the reputation of honey as a highly nutritious foodstuff over these many centuries. Sugars found in processed honey are readily digestible by humans and these sugars are essentially undisturbed by the processing. However, the value of honey as a dietary supplement is markedly reduced in the automated process steps necessary to provide large volumes of the clear golden liquid sweetener.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a fortified honey product wherein nutritional value is added. The process by which this product is made includes a novel sequence of steps directed to the introduction of pollen to processed honey. The process permits the addition of the pollen in a form which does not significantly alter the appearance or viscosity of the resultant product when compared with the conventional processed honey. Further, the invention is directed to providing a honey-pollen product which more closely approximates the composition of the honey product produced by the honeybee in the hive.